Meng Hails Court Decision to Block Trump Administration from Including Citizenship Question on 2020 Census
January 15, 2019
Congresswoman has led the fight against the question
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) today hailed the decision by a federal court to block the Trump administration's plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 decennialcensus.
"As a member of Congress who has led the charge against the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, I applaud this ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman," said Meng. "It is the right decision and will help ensure a more accurate census count."
"The Trump Administration's plan to sabotage the 2020 Census by adding a last-minute citizenship question has been deeply troubling," Meng added. "Since last year, I have continuously warned that asking respondents if they are citizens would likely decrease response rates and as a result produce an inaccurate and incomplete count that would have a decade's worth of consequences. It would impact the distribution of federal resources and the number of Congressional districts that each state receives. This was a politically-motivated question against immigrant communities that we now know was pushed by former White House strategist Steve Bannon. It deserves to never see the light of day."
"Although the Supreme Court will likely have the final say on this issue, we will continue to oppose any attempt to reinstate the citizenship question," said Meng. "We don't need a citizenship question; we need an accurate census count!"
Last year, Meng publicly calledfor a citizenship question to not be added to the census and she and Congressman José Serrano (D-NY) introduced a provisionin May that sought to restrict funding for the inclusion of the question. Both Meng and Serrano are members of the House Appropriations Committee, the panel that funds the U.S. Census Bureau. Meng also personally urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to not add the citizenship question to the census, and called for an investigationafter he lied to her about its origins.